the adam curtis joint about mindfucking the populace with a mixed barrage of actual surreal things happening and entirely made up shit that tests the limits of credulity.
yeah. I mean it was a decent flick iirc but I don’t need to think about it every fucking day.
I do think about this, and I like to go back to the Chapo interview in 2016 with Adam Curtis. I like how at least in the interview, it is framed about everyone knows the current narratives and beliefs are out of touch with reality. But, at least for most people, they don’t see any alternative narratives that feel real (most people don’t see Marxism, Anarchism, etc. as a real or serious possibility) and that leads to these strange reactionary and nihilist tendencies. It is something that is a simple lens to see current crises through, and it does kind of map on Fukuyama’s End of History. Which a lot of leftists like to shit on, but I do think it is correct in that, at least for most people, they don’t see any competing ideology as real or viable, so we are stuck in a cul-de-sac of hegemonic liberalism that gets more and more volatile as it is clearly failing and unable to grapple with reality.
I forgot they did an interview with him. Might have to listen to it again.
I agree, the End of History concept at the very least has utility for describing how people in west tend to understand their place in time and the conceit that liberalism and progressivism are the last stop in the search for an ethical and robust stable political philosophy.
I don’t think it’s even that people can’t imagine marxism etc as real and serious options, rather we’re conditioned to believe that what we have now is necessarily better than anything that came before and that we do liberalism because it provides as good or better outcomes compared to feudalism, fascism, marxism etc, while having none of the flaws of those systems. The implication is that anyone who would prefer to revive other already existing political systems is irrational, that by definition anything other than liberal democracy with corporate progressivism is discredited, inferior and regressive.
At least, that is more or less literally what I was taught in basic first year political philosophy. I guess most people never really interrogate this stuff in any case, but our societies still promote the same curiousity terminating beliefs.
I don’t know if it’s related but I think about this when I see messianic thinking and desire for apocalypse coming out of the zeitgeist or cultural leaders. Whether that is also a symptom of living in a society that has decided that the most moral thing we can hope for is maintaining the status quo forever or an expression of the impotent desperation that comes from holding that worldview while being miserable despite living what we’re supposed to believe is the best possible world.
by decent I mean, it was a stimulating and engaging watch, even if I’m a bit skeptical of a bunch of stuff he seems to speculate about.
That’s Adam Curtis for ya.
Yeah. I’ve never met anyone IRL who liked his work. I like his style. Or did, I might watch something later, see if it still hits.
Non-political people I’ve suggested Hypernormalisation to react really defensively, like it’s a malicious cognitive attack or something.
That film hit hard in 2017 when I first watched it .
